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Interview
protests over the depletion and contamination of groundwater resources famously led to the closing of a Coca-Cola factory in the village of Plachimada, India, in 2005. 

Groundwater is “a political question”

In many regions, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can be replenished. Groundwater pollution from raw material extraction, industry, private households, and agriculture is also increasing. This year’s UN’s World Water Day focused on groundwater, urging to make “the invisible visible.” A new publication by Brot für die Welt (Bread for the World, Germany), a member of the WCC Ecumenical Water Network, takes up this call and demands the better protection and fairer use of this vital resource.  WCC news talked to co-author Dr Ingrid Jacobsen about the social and political dimension of groundwater.

27 April 2022
Blog post
a glass of water

Reflecting on California groundwater abuse

I live in western Oregon, part of the Pacific Northwest long regarded as a verdant paradise, courtesy of rains and snowfall that can exceed 100 inches each year.  The snowfall in the mountains sustains our rivers through the dry summer.  But our climate has been profoundly disrupted.  Where I live, summers are far drier and hot.  But just to the south of us, this climate change has caused a drought worse than any drought in the past 1200 years.  Scientists call it a “mega-drought,” a severe drought affecting massive areas of the western United States for more than two decades.  

24 February 2022
Interview
Pedro Arrojo-Agudo

Defending the ‘blue soul of life’

Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, from Spain, is the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. In this interview with WCC News, he talks about the significance of these human rights, his plans and priorities for his mandate, and to that end, the role of faith, spirituality and ethics. 

08 April 2021
Blog post
Young woman drinking from a pump

Water on Wall Streets: understanding the evils of water futures markets

I teach water law, especially the water laws of the western United States.  Every year we discuss the question of water marketing, which is a well-established practice now in the somewhat arid western portion of the United States.  Naturally, students and others ask about the recent development of a futures market for water in California. Here is my answer: the creation of a futures market for water is the ultimate act of commodifying water in California. It is dangerous, inequitable, and quite contrary to the rule in water law that prohibits financial speculation in water. 

08 March 2021
Photo essay
A man retrieves plastic waste in a river in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: Sean Hawkey

Photos portray suffering caused by climate change - but offer hope as well

As we begin the year 2020, wildfires rage from the Arctic to Australia, icecaps melt, and fierce storms and floods lash our cities. This is already “the new normal.” Sean Hawkey, a photographer for ecumenical organisations including the World Council of Churches (WCC), selected photos from his archive as a reflection on a decade of work.

08 January 2020